Products Returns are a huge part of the Indian ecommerce industry. While mom-and-pop stores and big retail outlets can hang the ‘No returns/no refunds/no exchange’ board, fortunately (for buyers) and unfortunately (for sellers) online stores can’t do that.
A by-product of returns is Reverse Logistics for ecommerce.
Theoretically, it is a functional area of online business that handles logistics for following activities – product returns, maintenance, recycling and reselling. It has become a vital revenue source since product returns and exchange is rampant in online shopping.
In the maintenance, recycling and reselling arrangement marketplaces and companies like Green Dust are directly involved. However, in case of product returns, sellers come in the picture.
We at Indian Online Seller have already discussed the menace of returns at length. But reverse shipping fees associated with it needs special attention as well.
Let’s cut to the chase. Everyone wants to know that the burden of reverse courier charges should fall on whom – buyer, seller or etailer.
Etailers straightaway raise their hands and say ‘Hey I’m just a facilitator.’ That leaves us with buyer and seller. And let’s face it, dealing with returns & shipping is equally frustrating for both ‘genuine’ seller and buyer. Please note the special emphasis on the word ‘genuine’.
IOS spoke to few online shoppers and they feel that for orders returned due to seller’s fault, reverse shipping charges should be borne by sellers and not them. Buyers pointed out that in the absence of touch-and-feel (especially for apparels), pictures and product description can fail to describe the exact ‘quality’ of the product. Therefore, sellers need to take this into account and accept ‘not as described’ as a valid reason for certain categories and not charge buyers for reverse shipping.
“Local stores and malls can implement no refund/returns policy’ as we touch, try and then buy. How can we do that in online stores before making the purchase? I rather not buy online, if I’m asked to pay reverse courier for defective or ill-fitting and low quality gadgets, clothes, shoes,” says one buyer.
There are many fraud buyers out there. While the big ones are noticed by marketplaces and highlighted in the media such as the Apple iPhone thieves, the fake mother-son duo, and the cheaters’ gang. But sellers come across many such buyers on a regular basis that place fake orders, damage products while returning or replace original products with fake ones.
A seller who wishes to remain anonymous says,
“I started online business a year ago, started with Flipkart 2 months back, got good orders. But every customer returned the product. You can say out of 10 products sold, I received back 8. They deducted logistics charges, market place commission and other things. I felt they were fake orders, still Flipkart earns money. I have stopped doing business at Flipkart.”
Sellers’ point – why should we carry the burden of reverse shipping fees when most of the orders these days are turning out to be fake.
Marketplaces that are mediators in such scenario can help by drafting practical policies. Amazon and eBay are doing a decent job in this regard.
Amazon has clearly specified under its Shipping Cost Refunds tab that if the seller is at fault, he/she will have to refund return shipping charges to buyer. However, if a buyer returns an item stating that he/she no longer needs it, then the seller is not required to refund the return shipping costs.
The worst of all is Flipkart followed by Snapdeal as close second, according to sellers.
Flipkart recently changed its shipping & returns policies which states ‘For Flipkart Advantage orders, Reverse Shipping Fee will be compensated if the returned items are found to be damaged, missing or mis-shipped when verified at the Fulfillment Center.’
That’s sounds great on paper. But sellers have little faith that these marketplaces will verify returned products as they claim.
Take for instance, Anand who had a harrowing time dealing with Snapdeal.
“We have logged complaints with SD for more than 50 such cheating cases. But most of simply rejected by so called sellers help team. We use to provide all the proofs like purchase bills with products serial numbers, products weight at the time of shipping and returned products photo, weight, serial numbers. POD copy photos, etc., to prove that we had sent correct products. But, the SD blindly, unethically, illogically, madly, cheaply deny the claim,” Anand wrote in his comment below an IOS article on Snapdeal’s unjust penalties.
While speaking about Flipkart’s new policies, seller and AIOVA member Jitendra Rawal had shared with IOS,
“If returns are to be charged then returns approval should be in seller’s hand like Amazon. And also there should be a buyer seller communication medium on the marketplace.”
From the current lot of marketplaces, Flipkart is the only one that has its own logistics company – Ekart. Snapdeal has stake in GoJavas but they don’t own it. Many sellers believe that the skewed reverse shipping policy is for Ekart’s benefit.
“Flipkart gets marketplace commission. Sister concern ekart gets reverse logistics and some more money in form of payment gateway,” says the aforesaid seller who has stopped selling on Flipkart.
Is there any truth to this claim? Possible, isn’t it? Especially when the etailer is trying to increase Ekart’s revenue.
Unfortunately, there’s no clear way to reduce reverse courier charges except to stop selling on marketplaces that don’t pay heed to sellers’ issues and write to help desk incessantly. But there are ways to reduce returns, which in turn can control the cost.
Online sellers, can you share some more tips or personal experiences about reverse shipping? Please leave your comments below.
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
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